The Army colonel serving as garrison commander at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has been relieved amid an ongoing investigation, officials said Monday night.
Col. Phillip Sounia was relieved of command late last week by Lt. Gen. Douglas Gabram, commander of Installation Management Command, and Lt. Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps.
Gabram and Kurilla lost “trust and confidence” in Sounia’s ability to command, Fort Bragg officials said in a press release.
The cause of Sounia’s departure and the subsequent investigation are not being released at this time due to the ongoing investigation, said Fort Bragg garrison spokesman Thomas D. McCollum over the telephone.
Sounia’s acting replacement will be Justin Mitchell, a Department of the Army civilian employee who has served as the deputy to the garrison commander for more than five years, McCollum added. Mitchell will serve in the role until a replacement is made official.
Sounia first enlisted in the Army in 1989. He served as an M1 tank crewman before attending and commissioning through the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1995. He assumed command of the garrison at Fort Bragg in May 2019.
The new acting commander, Mitchell, previously served as the deputy to the garrison commander of Fort Rucker, Alabama, from 2009 to 2014, and as the deputy to the garrison commander at Schweinfurt, Germany, from 2002 to 2008.
Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.
